Councillors in Tenby have called for Pembrokeshire County Council to urgently review its policy of selling permits for ‘resident bays’ to visitors - asking for what they call a flaw in the scheme to be scrapped.

County Councillor for the town’s North ward Cllr Michael Williams has submitted a notice of motion to the local authority aksing that it immediately ceases issuing parking permits to other than permanent residents.

“The situation in certain areas of Tenby are now extremely difficult for residents, many of whom are afraid to use their vehicles as there is little chance that upon return they will be able to find anywhere to park,” stated Cllr Williams.

“Often vehicles with visitor permits will be parked for periods of 7 to 14 days completely blocking residents from parking.

“Suitable parking is available in nearby car parks, and the removal of this facility would make life a great deal easier for the few remaining long suffering residents that have not been priced out of the town.

“In certain areas it appears that the number of permits issued some time exceed the number of spaces available!” he continued.

“The issuing of permits to second home owners should also be critically reviewed, with an audit of the impact on full term residents undertaken.

“The critical importance of tourism is recognised but there is also a cost which has never been evaluated.

“The inabilty of residents to avail themselves of such a bisic facility for which they pay is but one example of that cost,” he added.

The matter also came up for discussion at this month’s meeting of Tenby Town Council, when members discussed correspondence from PCC that highlighted an increase in charges to the council run car parks, which will come into force this month, ahead of the holiday season.

Stays in facilities such as Tenby’s multi-storey car park are doubling in charges for some time spans, with an hour stay going up from 50p to a pound; and a two-hour stay increasing from £1 to £2.

A weekly summer pass for the same car park is increasing by £5 up to £30; and in the North Beach facility up from £20 to £25.

However, councillors were more concerned about the fact that a resident paying for an all year round permit to park in a reserved bay on their street, could come home from work of an evening to find that a visitor has been able to purchase a permit from PCC, to park in the space, and leave their vehicle their all week long, effectively ousting someone living permanently in that area of the community.

Cllr Laurence Blackhall told his colleagues that passes being sold to visitors that allow them to park in a ‘resident bay’ needed to be “abolished” - and a discussion needed to be had with PCC to push for this.

He also said that more needed to be done to support parking provision for those travelling into the town to work, stating that PCC should look at introducing more passport parking schemes to assist local people.

“It is a difficult balance with the increase in charges for car parks, as some visitors look at prices and almost laugh at how cheap our car parks are compared to other parts of the country,” he remarked.

Cllr Paul Rapi agreed that passes for visitors to take over resident bays needed addressing.

“We’ve talked about this many times previously, but not got anywhere - its wrong that a person who lives in Tenby that pays for a parking permit can see a tourist come along and park in that spot, who will refuse to move their vehicle for a week! We need to voice our concerns more strongly,” he told his fellow councillors.

He also wanted the County Council to tackle camper van and motorhome owners who seemed to think that it is acceptable to park up in resident bays to pitch up overnight.

“We need people from Pembrokeshire County Council to be policing things!” added Cllr Rapi.

The Mayor said that she was awaiting for PCC’s streetcare manager Marc Owen to come back to her to address issues relating to camper vans.

Cllr Charles Dale concurred: “The parking charge increases, are regrettable but necessary - but I find it completely immoral that someone could buy a residents parking permit and not be able to park!

“There are more permits given out than spaces available. If you pay for something you should expect to be given it!” he stressed, adding that it wasn’t just tourists that were found to be taking advantage of a flaw in the scheme, but someone local had purchased a permit in his name to park on Clareston Road!

Cllr Duncan Whitehurst believed that there used to be an arrangement in place in the past where people working in the town could use the top floor of the multi-storey for free.

“PCC could make more concessions for people that work and live in the town. If you had purchased a resident permit and came home to find that you couldn’t park on your street, then PCC should allow someone with such a pass to park for free in the nearest car park.”

Cllr Blackhall suggested that the town council needed to push PCC on this more and invite PCC’s head of infrastructure, Darren Thomas to a future meeting to put forward their points.